Over the past few months mainstream media has managed to give itself a reputation as unsightly as a quilt of feminist armpit fleece. The more people distrust mainstream media, the more they read various news sources as opposed to just one. And according to this new study, the more people read the news, the more Islamophobic they get…

People who read the news are more likely to feel angry towards Muslims, a new study has found. The findings, based on responses from 16,584 New Zealanders from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS), were published in leading international science journal PLOS ONE.

Cue accusations of “FAKE NEWZ!” from leftist snotholes. Naturally, bias is a concern in studies like this. Hence a few key details worth taking note of here. Firstly, this study was performed on the people of New Zealand for a reason. Kiwis aren’t exactly known for being super duper intolerant. Quite the opposite in fact.

The fact that the study was based on New Zealanders, who are generally “highly tolerant”, made it particularly poignant, the authors said. “New Zealand is a good test for speculation about media-induced Muslim prejudice because of its overall highly tolerant people. If anything, tolerant Kiwis might tend to reject intolerant stereotypes, reducing the effect of the media.”

The data takes into account people from both sides of the aisle. It appears that regardless of political party, people who read more news like Muslims less. Surprise!

Whether liberal or conservative, researchers found more avid news consumers showed both increased anger and reduced warmth towards members of Islamic faith.

[The authors said] “We find that the association of prejudice towards Muslims with more media exposure holds across the political spectrum, and is specific to Muslims. This indicates widespread representation of Muslims in the news is contributing to lower Muslim acceptance, rather than any partisan media bias.”